Hello, my name is Steven Harrison and I wrote the description of Master Set in the link in the first post. I wrote this about 10 years ago and sent it to Arthur Salvatore, who later passed it on and now it shows up in a lot of Google searches.
Master Set is a term coined by Rod Tomson of Soundings HiFi in Denver. I learned what I wrote in the article from talking to Rod, who is a long time audio acquaintance.
Rod went thru the MASTERS certification program at Sumiko many long years ago and Master Set is Rod's vision of that speaker training. It is not really proper to call my write up Master Set, but it happened nonetheless. I did get most of the main points correct though.
I can tell by some of the above comments that the posters are not understanding what goes on.
In simplified terms, one speaker is set, according to certain protocols, and the other speaker is then set to be in perfect phase with the first speaker. It is all done by ear and by listening to the noted set up song. There is nothing random or trial and error in the process. It requires tremendous focus and attention in the listening and making the small movements with the second speaker to get the setup perfect. There is only a small point where the second speaker is perfectly matched to the first speaker, where ever the first speaker may be set.
The end result is sound in perfect phase and very clear with no distortion. It will sound natural, especially acoustic instruments and voices. The area of best listening will be much larger than you've known before, thus you do not have to sit still in just one spot for best listening.
This can be done in any room. This procedure does not require the perfect room that nobody has but most setup methods, like say Cardas, assume you have. It can be done with any box speaker. It can be done by just one person, with a lot of practice. And the only cost is acquiring the set up song.
